As healthcare reform unfolds, midlevel health professionals such as nurses and physician assistants are advocating for more autonomy so they can play a bigger role in the delivery of primary care.
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A second western New York hospital is notifying patients that they may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C through the improper sharing of insulin pens, hospital officials said Thursday.
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What healthcare providers need to know to deal with overpayment challenges from the feds.The scrutiny of payments to hospitals has never been more intense. And as the federal government expands efforts to collect Medicare and Medicaid overpayments, healthcare providers see a growing need for strategies to proactively ensure that they are being paid accurately from those programs.
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There is some good news on the healthcare data-breach front.
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You might think that as a career matures, things would slow a little and afford some opportunities for activities that are not directly connected to work. Sadly, this is not the case.
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Health information technology adoption by the healthcare industry and its promotion by the federal government will continue apace with the political status quo largely intact after last week's election. The federal push for healthcare IT had previously enjoyed bipartisan support, but last month HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius received letters from eight top-ranking Republicans in the House and Senate questioning the $27 billion EHR incentive payment program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
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One sure indicator that the political status quo in Washington—a divided Congress and four more years of continuity in the executive branch—will be maintained came this morning when the Health IT Policy Committee met to discuss the future course of the federal electronic health-record incentive payment program.
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More than 300,000 physicians and other eligible professionals have signed up to participate in the federal electronic health-record system incentive payment programs, while more than 4,000 hospitals have enrolled, according to the latest CMS data.
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Total Medicaid spending grew 2% on average across all states in fiscal 2012, the lowest rate of growth since 2006 and down from the 9.7% growth rate in fiscal 2011.
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Total Medicaid spending grew 2% on average across all states in fiscal 2012, the lowest rate of growth since 2006 and down from the 9.7% rate of growth in fiscal 2011, according to the 12th annual 50-state Medicaid budget survey conducted on behalf of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
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